So I am about to start nursing.

[Shawn4455]

So I need some advice, I'm about to start nursing school and many of you may say "don't worry about this until you finish nursing" but I am a man of planning. Now that I got that out of the way let me explain.

My main goal is to be a nurse practitioner, I love the profession and currently I work hand in hand with a doctor helping him write his notes and give information to the patient from his database of patient care, seeing him diagnose, and I love what he does;that's why I wanted to become a nurse practitioner

now my problem, I wanted to be an Arnp because of the job and it only requires a masters, but I recently talked to a different Doctor at a hospital and he pushed me to be a PA instead because the Arnp will require dnp soon (I know it has been talked about for a while) and I fear it may be happening before I get my Arnp. I asked my doctor that I work with what he thought, and he really couldn't get a straight answer other than "do what you think you may like and follow it"

so I'm stuck between Arnp or PA or even taking the extra classes and see if I can handle med school and the mcat, what I am asking is for real general advice from everyone that can help, and what the community here thinks about the DNP or profession itself, to be honest I wouldn't mind going for the extra school as I am working as an RN but I read many articles stating there is no pay increase for DNP, why take the extra 4-6years of school and get paid the same as a PA with a master?

also if my grammar and spelling is off, I am sorry I'm on my phone

[llg, PhD, RN]

If you decide to go the NP route, get the DNP. It may or may not become the required degree by the time you graduate ... but even if it doesn't, you'll be ahead of the game in decades to come. You want the degree that will be the preferred degree in 20 years -- not the minimally required one in 2015. Also, having a DNP will open additional doors for you later -- doors you may not be seriously considering now, but which might appeal to you in 20 years (e.g. being a teacher for a university or running your own, independent Nurse Practitioner practice). Having the higher degree will probably be an advantage in 20 years, even though the details/specifics are hard to predict now.

As for the choice between PA and NP ... that's totally a personal preference issue. Some people really don't want to study nursing and work from a nursing perspective. They are physicians at heart and the PA is right for them. That's OK. It sounds like you might be one of those people. However, here is how I always looked at things -- though keep in mind that I was never hooked on being a physician: it was just one of the careers in health care that I considered. As a PA, you will always be an "assistant." You will never be totally in charge and/or get to run your own show. PA's are "under" the physicians legally and physicians control their profession. While they may be willing to share some work, responsibility, and compensation with their assistants (PA's), the PA's will always be on the lower rung. Personally, I would never be satisfied with that -- but that's just my personality. It's fine if that doesn't bother you and you would prefer to bypass a lot of stuff in nursing that might not appeal to you. I have a friend who is a PA who complains all the time about the way the docs dump all the work they don't want to do on him while they keep the more attractive work for themselves. He has switched jobs multiple times because he gets tired of doing all their scut work and not having much say in how things are organized and decided in the practices he has worked for.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Honestly, it all depends on the model you want to follow. Do you want to follow the nursing model (NP) or the medical model (PA)? Also, in most states, the NP has more autonomy than the PA.